How many female killers (or conspirators) were there in Columbo?

Recently saw this question and thought I'd answer it. By my count, 19, but it depends a little on how you count.

Beth Chadwick waits to kill her brother in Columbo: Lady in Waiting
Susan Clark as Beth Chadwick in Columbo: Lady in Waiting

So here's the count I came up with

  1. The first lady on the list is Dr. Ray Fleming's accomplice and mistress...Joan Hudson in Prescription Murder.

  2. Next was the ice cold lady lawyer, Leslie Williams who murdered her husband in Ransom for a Dead Man.

  3. The third was another co-conspirator, Dale Kingston's girlfriend (and Richard Levinson's real-life wife) Tracy O'Connor, played by Rosanna Huffman in Suitable for Framing.


  4. Next was Beth Chadwick, who murdered her brother in Lady in Waiting.

  5. Then actress Lillian Stanwyck who accidentally killed Sir Roger Haversham in Dagger of the Mind.

  6. Nora Chandler was a multiple murderer - having killed her husband years before, then her assistant Jean to cover it up in Requiem for a Falling Star.

  7. Viveca Scott was angry with chemist Karl Lessing, and not just because he wouldn't date her anymore. He had her beauty cream and she killed him for it in Lovely but Lethal.

  8. Grace Wheeler didn't even remember killing her husband in Forgotten Lady.


  9. Funny lady Joyce Van Patten was only slightly funny as bitter spinster turned double-murderer Ruth Lytton in Old Fashioned Murder.

  10. Abigail Mitchell knew exactly what she was doing, in fact she may turn it into a mystery novel, in Try and Catch Me. (Spoiler alert: He caught her)

  11. Lawrence Luckenbill dared his girlfriend Kay Freestone to Make Me a Perfect Murder...and she did. Then she took his job running the TV network.

  12. If Dr. Joan Allenby were a dessert what kind of dessert would she be? In Sex and the Married Detective, we get to find out.

  13. Psycho Vivian Dmitri thought she killed Mrs. Columbo and was about to kill Lt. Columbo...but he was a step ahead of her in Rest in Peace Mrs. Columbo.

  14. Freddy Brower looked like he hit the jackpot when he married gorgeous redhead Nancy. Turns out she was a psycho and helped his uncle Leon murder him in Death Hits the Jackpot.

  15. Tyne Daly turned in a pair of great performances on Columbo. My second favorite was her portrayal of Dolores McCain, who runs over her husband Big Steve McCain - the owner of the local pro football team - with the landscaper's truck, then kills her lothario nephew Harold in A Bird in the Hand.


  16. Next is Lauren Staton who murders her lover in It's All in the Game when she finds out that...

  17. ...he's also her daughter's lover. Lisa Martin is our 17th killer lady, though she was technically the accomplice in this one.

  18. Shera Danese supposedly always wanted to play a killer on one of the episodes. She got close enough as the accomplice with her forensic examiner boyfriend in A Trace of Murder.

  19. Finally, Vanessa Farrow accidentally killed her mobster ex-husband in the very last Columbo episode - Columbo Likes the Nightlife.

So those are the 19 I came up with. 

I didn't count Nadia Donner in A Deadly State of Mind because it was a crime of passion, and the killing wasn't planned. She did help cover it up after the fact, though.

Likewise, Veronica in Try and Catch Me helped to cover up the murder after the fact but wasn't part of the plan to kill Edmund.

In Columbo Goes to the Guillotine, Paula was involved in the scam, but not in the killing.

So, what do you think, did I miss anybody? Let me know in the comments below.

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